Noa Eshkol. No Time to Dance.

In commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Israeli choreographer, dancer and visual artist Noa Eshkol (1924–2007), the Georg Kolbe Museum in Berlin is planning a three-part research and exhibition project highlighting her life and work. The project focuses especially on Eshkol’s movement studies which she began developing in the 1950s, as well as her choreographies, language studies, textile art and notation system for human movement.

The interdisciplinary project is organised in cooperation with the Noa Eshkol Foundation for Movement Notation in Holon (Israel) and offers deep insights into the work of an artist who was far ahead of her times. Eshkol created minimalistic, movement-focused choreographies which could be performed without music, sets or costumes. She recorded these pieces with a notation system that she and the architect Avraham Wachmann co-developed in 1954: the Eshkol-Wachmann notation. The choreographies were performed for the first time by the Chamber Dance Group, founded by Noa Eshkol herself. The Georg Kolbe Museum in cooperation with the KW Berlin will republish the notation system which will serve as the starting point for a series of performances starting in summer 2024, including historical choreographies by Eshkol and newly commissioned pieces by contemporary choreographers.

In stark contrast to her dance works, the project also presents her large-format, highly colourful, abstract tapestries which she created from collected and donated pieces of fabric following the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Visitors of the exhibition will be able to view Eshkol’s rarely displayed tapestries alongside her illustrations, documentary films, photos and notebooks from the Noa Eshkol Archive. Her works will be presented together with multimedia pieces by such artists as Sharon Lockhart and Yael Bartana, both of whom were inspired by Eshkol.

Artistic director: Kathleen Reinhardt
Assistant curators: Emma Borwieck, Eva da Silva Antunes Alves
Choreographer: Noa Eshkol Foundation
Artist: Noa Eshkol
Book launch in cooperation with KunstWerken, Berlin: January 2024; exhibition: Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin: 14 Mar. – 25 Aug. 2024; Performances of new production of contemporary pieces: Georg Kolbe Museum, Berlin: June, July, August 2024